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1996 TOYOTA TACOMA — Complaint #426683

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NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF filed August 25, 2003

NHTSA complaint #426683 (ODI reference 10033425) concerns a 1996 TOYOTA TACOMA and was filed on August 25, 2003. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 9, 2002. The vehicle had 90,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Washington based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear:springs:leaf spring assembly:leaf, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TOYOTA TACOMA cohort independently describe similar suspension:rear:springs:leaf spring assembly:leaf failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1996 TOYOTA TACOMA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
1996 TOYOTA TACOMA
Component
SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF
State
Washington
Mileage
90,000 mi

Complaint Description

BAD REAR LEAF SPRINGS, CAUSING EXTREME INSTABILITY. VEHICLE: 1996 TOYOTA TACOMA 4X4 REGULAR CAB, REGULAR BED, 4CYLINDER. THE MIDDLE REAR LEAF SPRING HAS A TENDANCY TO BREAK, EVEN UNDER LIGHT LOADS.*AK ON MY TRUCK, THE DRIVER'S SIDE BROKE AT AROUND 100,000 MILES, THE PASSENGER SIDE BROKE AT ABOUT 110,000 MILES. THIS CREATED TWO PROBLEMS: 1) THE REAR OF THE TRUCK TENDS TO LEAVE THE GROUND ON EVEN SMALL BUMPS. 2) THERE IS LESS WEIGHT TOWARDS THE FRONT OF THE VEHICLE, CAUSING A SERIOUS DEGRADATION IN STEERING CONTROL. MY SPRINGS BROKE WITH NO LOAD, I HEARD IT HAPPEN EACH TIME. I CONTACTED A TOYOTA DEALERSHIP EXPECTING THERE IS SOME SORT OF RECALL ON THESE SPRINGS, THEY SAID NO, BUT THERE WAS A 'TECHNICAL BULLETIN' FOR REPLACEMENT OF THESE SPRINGS. TOYOTA WOULD NOT PAY FOR THE REPLACEMENT, EXCEPT IF UNDER WARRANTY. (MY WARRANTY EXPIRED AT 100,000 MILES) THEY WANTED $345 EACH SIDE, PLUS LABOR TO HAVE THE PROBLEM FIXED. THERE WAS NO WAY I COULD AFFORD IT. I DROVE AROUND W

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 426683
ODI Number 10033425
Date Filed August 25, 2003
Failure Date March 9, 2002

Similar SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF Complaints for 1996 TOYOTA TACOMA

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.